The lotto is an additional tax for people who don’t understand math
A lot of people understand how unfair the math is, and still buy the tickets because “you never know.”
Source: I buy tickets sometimes because you never know…
If you can afford it, then it’s no harm really. I’ve made a profit from the lottery myself, albeit a minor one. Depending on the lottery, it’s not the worst thing you can give pocket change away to for a bit of fun. So I never understood this “you’ll never win” mentality/gatekeeping hobbies, people know the chances, but it’s fun either way.
I think the big problem is that people who are addicted to gambling are being suckered several times a week. It’s not really gambling, it’s buying a daydream. If a casino gave you similar odds in one of their slots, it would likely be illegal based on the odds and the payout. So people who think of it like gambling are getting the worst of it. The expected value never approaches anything close to fair, even at rhe highest jackpots.
people know the chances
This article agrees. Huge caveat:
…Osmond…obtained a database from the Connecticut Lottery containing 21 years’ worth of winners. What did he find?
They are largely poor, largely minorities, and often addicts.
The lottery preys on these people.
Vox, “4 ways the lottery preys on the poor”, 2016
I would sometimes buy one just to have something to wait for. It’s cheaper than buying trash online.
No, we do know. You will not win once.
Somebody might win a huge amount, but that one will not be you. I can guarantee that.
You will put in more money than you will get out. Somebody needs to pay their shareholders.
How can you guarantee that? The chance is close to zero, but not zero - ergo you cannot be 100% sure that they won’t win.
And that’s the point they are trying to make - you don’t need to be 100% logical to enjoy life. Sure, they probably won’t win. But thinking they might, the anticipation of scratching the tickets, etc, is worth it to them.
It’s a quirk in statistics that buying a lottery ticket doesn’t really statistically improve your chances of winning over not buying a ticket.
But like also your odds of winning with a ticket are infinitely higher than without.
I’ll let you on a secret to increase your odds.
Since the chance to guess the correct numbers is so low that it’s almost guaranteed you made a bad guess… Just change the guess to increase your odds.
I think that the fact that people don’t believe you when you tell them that 1 2 3 4 5 6 has the exact same chance of winning than any other combination shows how bad we are with numbers , 1 2 3 4 5 6 is seen as something with very low odds of happening that is thought about as something that will never happen, but say 4 8 15 16 23 42 is seen as something that could happen anytime.
You win every time you do not play the lottery.
You have more chance to play the lottery your whole life and never win a significant amount, than it is to win a significant amount once.
Since the lottery is a business, big part of all the ticket sales is used to run the business (and to generate profit). Only the rest is used to pay the winnings.
The lottery is run by the state government where I am, and all profits are put back into the community as grants.
Your odds of winning are just as awful, but at least you know your money isn’t just making some rich people richer.
This seems to be more widespread than I thought! I assumed at least one of you were German. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there is a monopoly on lottery.
